


Something stupid (like 'I love you')

by poetdameron



Series: Tumblr MCU ficlets/prompts [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, first fic i translate from spanish to english!, how pepper got that nickname, pd: it's mine anyway lol, so if there is like... a lot of fuck ups it's because of me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 02:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4688396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetdameron/pseuds/poetdameron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is drunk, so drunk he is in love with Virginia Potts and her freckles</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something stupid (like 'I love you')

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first fic I translate from spanish to english. I wrote it a month ago and I'm sure as hell it will have lots of mistakes, so I beg your pardon beforehand... So, thank you so much for reading this! Enjoy ~

**Something Stupid (like ‘I love you’)**

If there was one thing he hated more than weddings and funerals, it was the damn conferences that Obadiah Stain forced him to go around the world. ‘It's for the good of the company’ his blue balls after a week without sex and limited alcohol that fucking bald had indicated to both, the hotel and Happy. Okay, yes, maybe he had a problem with alcohol and it was time to turn down the case. He thanked these two people, three with the ever valuable Virginia behind him, who cared for him, but he has everything under control. If not? Is Tony Stark!

Tony Stark, whose father drove drunk and took his wife to death. Clearly he had the issue controlled, and Obadiah and Happy controlled his drinks at this hotel. But never underestimate Tony Stark.

Okay, he should stop repeating his full name in his mind.

“Sir, where are you going? The conference begins in five minutes”.  
“Out, Potts. I'm out. You should come with me”.  
“Mr. Stark, please...”  
“Hey, hey, hey. Potts, you're being boring again”.

The redhead looked almost offended, her pink lips parted, as if to replicate something, but in the end had decided to say nothing at all. Dammit. Tony looked away from her, she’s always far away and he doesn’t know if it is fear, respect, professionalism or simple logic inertia that maintain good girls away from the predator. If it was the latter, the truth is that he was feeling a strange burning underbelly and it wasn’t lust. No, Virginia Potts filled his head and the rest of his body with other things. Obi had mocked him saying that he was in love with his secretary, Rhodes had looked at him almost with hate saying the girl was too good for him and the worst of all was that he was in complete agreement.

With both.

“Forgive me if I have offended you. Again”.

He never apologized. But this woman? All the world, all the time. And he had lacked her respect many times more drunk than sober. At least, of this he was sure, he had not molested her and that was enough to try to keep a clean relationship with her. Ewww, relationship. And Virginia in the same sentence. Oh. He should stop thinking about it.

“Don’t worry”, she replied. “Mr. Stark, Mr. Obadiah asked me not to let you miss the conference...”  
“I know what he said. Look, Miss Potts: I'm going crazy here. If I spent a few minutes there, I end up doing crazy stuff and none of us wants that. True?”  
She looked at him a long moment, then nodded. “If I let you go, promise me to return early and attend all lectures the rest of the week?”  
"God", Tony chuckled folding his arms and looking into her eyes. “All of them?”  
“All of them”.  
“No, it seems to me just...”  
“Then, please follow me to the forum...”  
“Ah-ah, Potts. Deal”.

He approached her, the slight heel of his black shoes noisily down the hall and she standing there like that, ready to take his hand when he offered it. They had a deal now, Tony needed an excuse for not hold her hand to him and hug her as if that was enough and never let her go. And why the fuck was him thinking of all these things? Why he had pulled Potts hand and had come so close to her? Why he leaned toward her to say something when he had absolutely nothing to say?

“'I always keep my word, Miss Potts” ‘What's that, Anthony Edward Stark? What the fuck is that?’, he asked to himself. Just an excuses to feel the scent of lavender close.  
“We have a deal, Mr. Stark”.  
“Good”.

And with that, he had to let her go before it became suspicious, before she noticed how his body responds to her movements, like everything on him melts at just hear her speak. No, he definitely had to get out. Why the fuck Obadiah decided to take Happy to London and send him alone with Potts to Madrid? Motherfucker.

******

He was drunk.

Maybe slightly drunk. Stuck drunk, looking stupid and laughing like an idiot, having the worse ideas, that's how he managed to get to his room just to notice that he had no fucking idea what his bedroom was. But the 212 was Potts’s, so ... He was there. Outside her door with the loss tie, hair a mess, shirt open to the fourth button, fuzzy thinking and a desire to take her that even the devil could not understand.

“Poooooooooootts!” He said as he punched the door in a hurry, as if someone pursued him. “Pottsy, Open that doooooor!”

It was three in the morning. Great idea, Tony.

There were noise inside and he knew that his dream woman (red hair and long legs) was about to make an appearance and he was sure that if she opened the door, and she was in her pajamas ... Oh, look at that: pajamas! Sexy pajamas shorts and tank top! Bless Madrid for not being cold this time of the year. Tony smiled at her in the doorway, her blue eyes wide open and a look that told him she thought about killing him in sooner.

“I Woke you up? Sorry, honey”.  
“Do not call me that” she said, crossing her arms. “You promised to return early”.  
“I'm sorry...”  
“Do you need anything, Mr. Stark?”  
“Uhmmn... I have no idea what my room is”.

Potts immediately sighed, pointing to the front door to his bedroom. 213.

“Oh, look at that”.  
“Good night, Mr. Stark”.  
“Wait, Potts! No!”. She stopped halfway, looking expectantly. “I'm sorry about this, really sorry. You have no idea how much I don’t want to disappoint you as I always do”.

They were silent. Tony hit himself in the forehead with one hand, turning face down on the ground in thought, chiding by how ridiculous it heard and he was now sure he would have on his hands the letter of resignation from his personal secretary soon. And, oh God, no? He really don’t want that. Potts is ... Virginia Potts is indispensable in his life.

“Go To sleep, Mr. Stark”.  
“Tony”.  
She nodded. “Go to sleep, Mr. Tony. Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning”.  
“Come to dinner with me...” and then he hush. Tony shook his head. “No... not now. I mean tomorrow. At night. You want to go for dinner with me tomorrow?”  
Virginia seemed to think about it, bit her lower lip and something in Stark’s stomach jumped at it. “Okay, but promise me something...” He nodded. “You will not drink if I eat dinner with you, okay?”

He thought. No more than two seconds. He nodded.

“Good night, Mr. Tony”.  
“Good night, Miss Virginia”.

Potts smiled at the mention of her name.

******

Was it worth putting these boring hours for a meal? Tony looked at Potts to his side, taking careful notes without looking the other way other than the speaker, and then the notebook. Stark sighed, finishing the water they had left in his spleen and letting his weight against the seat back.

Was he going soft with this woman, isn’t it? He apologized to her almost all the time, even for things that were not considered poor despite the appalling way in which her aunt Peggy looked after she have witnessed his actions or mere words. They were close, he and Potts, he knew from the moment he smiled just to hear her heels approaching down the corridor to his office and down the stairs to the workshop. Then he asked her to accompany him to aunt Janet’s funeral and then started to stay in her company at night on the office, when she insisted on staying up late to work, to finish the work he never did.

Then, despite all of these on him, he began to do such work to stop her wasting her time. And, surprisingly, he missed the nights they stayed there, not talking much, just there in silence. Together. Normal. Almost home like. How’s that this was happening?

“Mr. Stark”, Tony turned to look blankly at her. He was sleepy. “The conference has ended.”

He jumped up like a spring, a smile crossed his face and she waited to walk out of the seats to keep the aisles and take the elevator together. If it was over, meant they could change their clothes and go, isn’t it? When he consulted this with his secretary, she looked down and nodded, saying he could use rest after a long day of talks of which he honestly do not remember anything.

“Potts, don’t think I've forgotten our deal.”  
She swallowed, shifted her weight to the opposite foot and replied in a thin voice: “I don’t think it's a good idea, Mr. Stark.”  
“How not? We have a deal, Virginia.”  
He said turning to look at her, the elevator opened to let a couple of old ladies and Tony smiled. “I'm just your secretary, Mr. Stark...”  
“Tony.”, he turned to look at her again. “Tony. Not Stark. Tony”  
“Mr. Tony...”  
One of the women snickered before them, the other just smiled and moved closer to his companion. “I'll come for you at seven-thirty, is that okay? De beautiful”.

She just nodded. Like if he really thought she had to do something to be the most beautiful. How could that be? Needed to be more beautiful than she was? Is that what he mean? Shit, Tony, what was he thinking?

******

Said and done, this woman would be his undoing. He swallowed as she opened the door of her room, lined in pink. In a bloody pink cocktail dress, she looked like a fucking chocolate and wanted to eat her. Literal. And by eat, he didn’t meant to chew-swallow, but down and browse, open, and lick, and well... good. Better stop thinking about it or the night would end badly, and many things had ended badly in their days together to add whatever he had with her to the list. So... control, Tony, control.

“I was thinking...” she began. “If you don’t mind, of course. I think we could have dinner right here. So there wouldn’t have any scenes of undesirable alcohol”.  
Tony raised an eyebrow, smiling. “Thinking of getting drunk, Miss Potts?”  
“I don’t know” she answered smiling. Tony smiled back, stepping aside to let her pass.  
“I don’t think so, Potts. The restaurant is not as glorious as the brochure said.”  
“That you never read”.  
“That’s why I have you! I get distracted easily”. She nodded, Tony gave way to the elevator. “Besides, our reservations are fantastic. I promise”.

She nodded again.

They did not say much on the way to the restaurant. Tony had commissioned J.A.R.V.I.S. to find the best of the best in town and the only thing he could think to tell the woman was this, and it looked good. Because seriously, she looked perfect. More perfect than she already ---- God. He had to stop thinking like that now. Well, now talking about the restaurant, it really was amazing. With the lights dimmed, murmurs and classical background music. A complete cliché.

She started to laugh after his silly joke, “Well, you behaved pretty well. I must say it, Tony”.  
“’Tony’! There!”, he smiled. “We're making progress, Miss Potts”. And she was going to correct herself in that moment, Tony stepped forward about it. “No, no. it's okay. We have been working together for years, you are not only my assistant at this point”.

Silence. Potts nodded, trying not to think about the implications of that last sentence and how she regretted her involvement with this man right now. But he was so calm ... between what it’s calm on Tony’s life. That was it, they were well with the kind of relationship they had, even though how nervous he was right now. And it was funny, why would Tony Stark nervous before her? This whole situation was so surreal to see… The whole dinner was surreal, seeing him right here. But everything was perfect, from his demonstration of perfect Spanish (“my mom was of Spanish descent, all my nannies spoke spanish… so I learned it even before I knew how to pronounce my lastname”), through his silly jokes, to her calling him ‘Tony’ and not ‘mr.’. It was all perfect. Why haven’t he asked her out before?

“I understand why Obi wants me to participate in these things, really I do. But by now you should know that my level of attention is too dispersed on them… and everything, actually”.  
She nodded, leaving the cup with wine on the table. “I agree with that, but I think you should put some of you and make an effort”.  
“I'll do it! What did I did today?”  
“Yes, I hope so out every day”.  
Tony tilted his head, closing one eye and making an expression of thought. “I don’t know, today I paid attention partly because I had a hangover”. Potts laughed at that. “It wasn’t that bad. There was water, coffee and donuts. -at Least”.

He'd had worse hangovers, yes. And the company was good. They ate, laughed, drank and, for no apparent reason, he ended up talking a little more. About his father and his mother, aunt Peggy, Jarvis, and uncle Hank and aunt Janet, Hope and every last thing on his strange life, secret conferences he never understood, all those things that were left unanswered. He did not wanted to, but he finished talking about those resentments inside him and the way the redhead was watching him made Tony see that she understood, as if deep down, she had been there or could compare it to a personal experience.

Looking at that, he did not have much idea about Virginia’s life. That is, he knew the basics and what comes in her presentation, but what else? Her parents lived in, redundant, Virginia, and had no brothers. Her cousins were sometimes mentioned, a grandfather and friends she see some Fridays or Saturdays, one or at most twice a month. He knew she had worked for AIM for years, her work as a personal assistant to aunt Peggy had been short because Carter immediately thought she would be better off working for him ("You will hold him off, that is enough for the world!" she has said when It was announced to him and Tony just looked at her lips made a line). Nothing else.

“Can I do a stupid and a little inappropriate question?”  
Virginia raised an eyebrow. “You do it always, anyway”  
“But now, I’m asking permission. Can I?”  
“Well...”  
Tony smiled. “Uhmmm ... You know I'm against relationships and I'll never get married, right?”, she smiled and nodded. “But I want to know, what do you think?”  
“I hoped worse”, she admitted, leaning slightly towards him to answer better. “I have no idea, really. I honestly think just to have a relationship, but I'm not closed to the idea. Married and have children, those are things that are behind me”.  
He cocked his head. “Why?”  
“Uhmmm...” She took a sip of liquor. “It Just passed. It's not something I've thought about for years. I don’t give importance to things that are not coming in the near future, so maybe that's why”.

He nodded, though there was much to agree about it, for some reason, the information bitter on him so he followed her example and he drink in the silence that followed. Thanks heavens, dessert came and then the background music songs went from being an almost unknown language to something in English he could understand: Frank Sinatra and cigarette’s smell, the room where his parents and uncle Hank distressed in a corner, drinking tea and trying to explain his latest invention to a genuinely interested aunt Peggy while his father laughed loud for any things only God knew, Howard just really wanted to silence the other genius because they couldn’t be two of them. He remembered the way Pym’s eyes went down and then stayed quiet while aunt Peggy tried to make him talk again. Yes, It could not relate to great things with certain kind of music, but at least he had something else in mind because this whole situation was driving him crazy.

“You don’t like Frank Sinatra?”

Pott’s voice resonated like a heavenly calling and his brown eyes were on her almost immediately, the redhead had her head to one side, her small pink lips made an interrogation and Tony smiled almost by inertia, against his will, his heart drumming inside.

“It's not that, the... the memories that brings me are not my favorites”.  
“Oh”, she exclaimed then smiled. “It reminds me of my grandfathers and my parents dancing. Is… lovely to see them together”, said Virginia playing with the cloth napkin on the table, none of them had even touched the cake in front of them and she was staring at her nails. “They always danced very stuck, his cheek against her cheek. It’s really cute”.  
“Sounds cloying”.  
She laughed. “A bit. But I think... I guess that's how love should look”.

For some reason, Tony said nothing and imagined he stuck to Potts, dancing cheek to cheek.

******

At about three in the morning, he came knocking on the door of poor Potts. Again.

“Poootts! I know you're there and I'm druuuuuuuuuuuuuuunk!”

And yes, he was drunk. And melancholy. Thinking about how his parents never gave him diabetes, in how unhappy aunt Peggy sometimes seemed, in the sickness of uncle Hank, the remoteness of Hope and, oh my God, how come both Pyms ended up hating his father? And consequently him? It was as if all his father figures tended to see it as a disappointment and nothing more. In the end, Virginia opened the door with blue eyes wide open, as if she could not believe he was again in this state. So he made his way to the bedroom, throwing unceremoniously on the bed of his secretary while she filled a glass with water and offered it to him. Three shots and he was done with it, she ran over while wondering what happened.

What was happening? She was alone. He was alone and...

“I think I'm in love with you, Potts. Will you ever fall in love with me?”

She turned her back now, silent as many other times in the office. Ah, the harsh reality. And he had been warned once by aunt Angie: ‘You will really going to fall in love one day. He would be so deeply in love, that karma would make a bad play and the girl will not correspond him, not even remotel. She would look at him with pity and caress his cheek in apology, saying that she could never hopefully reciprocate his feelings’. His karma was Virginia Potts, he knew this.

“You're my boss, Mr. Stark”.

“Yes, right? It’s a pity…” And he slowly dropped to the bed to sit on the floor, between the window leading to the balcony and the bed, his back against this. “Come, sit with me”.

A glass of water came into view, the long arm and small hand offering it was illuminated by the light from outside and he smiled as she looked into his eyes. Virginia had barely held his gaze, but there was hurt in her blue eyes. What was that? Besides blush, a little anger, little expression of concern and confusion, what was that? What was that glow? She did not sit with him. Instead, she chosed to go into the bathroom and put on a robe, standing next to him with folded arms over her chest rough.

“What is it, Mr. Stark? Now why...?”  
“Nothing in particular”, he said. “My life stink, you know? The prize of ‘person who hates Tony Stark te most’ is for no other than Tony Stark himself”.  
“Do Not say that...”  
“It Is true. You might think that this is a title you deserve, but no. The black belt of Stark hate is mine”.

Silence. She sat beside him without looking.

“I don’t hate you”.

Ah, blessed night.

“But you don’t love me”.  
“Do not… say that”.

“Potts?”

When he turned to look, he didn’t think, not even once. and just turned his lips to hers. He kissed her because he had long wanted to do so, wanted since he saw her go behind Carter and Martinelli that evening during the birthday party of the actress. The redhead said and did nothing, so Tony put a hand on her cheek, that's when she thought about doing something and her response was positive: both arms around his neck, her lips moving, explorers and sweets on their own, the experience of both making a friendly competition as they always did, he was sure of it. And, almost as if by magic, the song they heard at dinner popped into his head, making a soothing echo that encouraged him to hold her to him, kissing her sigh before continuing.

He thought she would take him away as split from his lips, but no. He was allowed to hug and left to continue his kisses to her neck, down the jaw and scoring a little without losing detail of each section of the unknown skin. Then she take off that robe, brought those cute suspenders of the other day, her aroma was intoxicating his lungs in a way he adored. Freckles. Freckles everywhere, that was what he found. And a smile graced his face as he began to kiss, to mark them with his tongue, as much as he could count, listening to her groan and say his name.

'Tony', he had never heard it so beautiful. 'Tony', was this some kind of wonderful prayer? 'Tony', the call he always wanted to hear from right now. 'Tony', the name that only on her lips and voice is sacred and holy.

“...Tony”, she muttered, her hands between them. “Tony enough, you're drunk”.

He directed his gaze to her, the two facing each other with rough breaths.

“Could we...?”  
“Wait?”, he questioned her frowning although he understood.  
She nodded, eyes downcast, her fingers playing with Tony’s button dhirt, barely noticing she had unbuttoned halfway. “It's just... your reputation... and you're my boss, I would not... if this is a mistake, I don’t want any part of it”.  
“It's not a mistake...”  
“You're drunk, Tony. In the morning I’ll just on more on your list. I don’t want that”.

'Okay,' he thought he said; years later Tony learned that he said nothing. So he stood up without looking at her and crossed the bedroom to disappear in a flash like he had appeared: suddenly, unexpectedly, loud as himself. Potts stood in the same position half an hour, and cried another half before falling asleep.

******

Like every morning, they met in the elevator. This time alone. And with nothing to say.

His head was spinning and his lips were sored because he had made too many stupid things in one night that deserved drink even more and lip biting. Potts, meanwhile, was immaculate as ever, but with the direct blue gaze everywhere except him.

“I like your freckles”, and of course, Stark had to say something stupid, I mean why not? “I didn’t know you had so much... I mean, I've seen your face, but I think the ones on your shoulders and back are... adorable...”

The pair of old ladies from the other day came suddenly, standing between the them.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark”.  
Tony nodded, giving his good morning to the newcomers in his almost perfect spanish. “Buenos días, mis señoras”.  
“Buenos días, muchacho”  
“Buenos días, mi niño”.

“I thought about that Sinatra song... when...”  
“Mr. Stark, please”.  
He nodded again. “I think I can relate the song with a better memory, that’s all”.

She nodded.

One woman approached him, concerned. “Hi, ¿estás peleando con tu esposa?”  
“¿Mi esposa?”, he looked surprised at Potts. Tony swallowed. “No, no, señora”.  
“¿Entonces por qué está tan molesta con vos? ¡No la hayas engañado, cabrón!”  
“¿Yo? No, ¡jamás!”  
“Oh, buen niño. Ten un buen día y que las cosas se arreglen pronto en tu casa”.

Tony smirked, dismissed the woman along with her companion.

“Bonito día, señoras”  
“¡Hasta luego, hijo!”

The doors closed behind them.

“You want to know what they were saying?” She negated. “The old lady thought we were married”.  
Potts finally turned to face him. “Enough. Can we leave this incident behind in this morning? You're my boss and I’m your personal assistant, this is the way things are. In any case, if you can’t work with that, then you need to accept my resignation formally”.  
“Me? What? No, no, Potts... Okay. In the past. No, it never happened. That’s what you want? Okay, I can play that. Nothing happened last night”.  
“Okay”.  
“Okay”.

Silence. Then the hall to the conference room and his hands were sweating. What was happening now? How is it that everything had immediately gone to hell in a monumental way? How bad was him in love? Just for an innocent kiss? Okay, maybe not so innocent, he had a good erection (and then a good orgasm all by himself) despite rejection. But, really? Come on... come on ... This woman was like a spice. Itched like hell because curiosity killed him, but also because she seasoned his days. Tony didn’t wanted to lose her for yes, his karma attacking him in this way. Well, he will take the bull by the horns: Potts did not wanted him. That’s it. This is life. And he deserved it. Tony bit his lower lip again before entering the room and sitting next to his secretary. Then he smiled with her legs crossed.

“Even so, I like your freckles. I think you should let them look the light more often”.  
“Mr. Stark...”  
“I’m serious, Pepper”.

“What?”  
“That you should let your freckles breathe more often, Pepp”.  
“No, that I hear…” And she finally looked at him in the eyes for the first time in the day. “What did you called me?”  
“Pepper”  
“Pepper? Why?”  
“Did you see those freckles? Pfffff. They seem pepper on... any kind of... very white surface”.  
“Me…? What?”

“Good morning everyone, welcome to the conference number...”  
“Hush, Pepper, the conference begins”.

The woman looked at him a few seconds, Tony held her gaze. And she smiled. Tony smiled back and, suddenly, it was all terribly familiar again.

*******

******

*****

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading! Maybe I'll see you on [my tumblr](http://anythingforyoudoll.tumblr.com/)? Have a good day!


End file.
